The Greek Tragicomedy of Stark
by sakizar
Summary: The history of Tony Stark and his daughter Darcy Lewis can be written in the margins of Greek mythology. Prequel to 'Run That By Me One More Time' and 'Theory of Relatives'. Series of one-shots of important conversations Tony and Darcy have with and about each other.
1. Oedipus, King of Thebes

**Chapter 1: Oedipus, King of Thebes  
**

_September 1989...  
_

"Dummy! No! Not okay. That is not okay. Put that back! Ah, fuck."

Obadiah Stane cringes at the continuous crashing coming from Tony's raised platform. For such a brilliant inventor, the boy is remarkably immature. "Tony! I need a word. Come down."

"Ow. Shit. Yeah, one second, Obie. Be right down." A loud clang sounds, and Tony continues in hushed tones, "Dummy, you worthless hunk of junk, you know that you're not allowed to- Hey, watch it! I swear, if you-"

"Tony," Obadiah sighs, this could take a while if he doesn't speed up the young man.

"Yeah, sorry, Obie. Dummy, I'll deal with you later. Go to the charging station. That's right shoo. Stop sulking you overgrown- Yeah, yeah, whatever." Finally, Tony drops down from his platform. He's about as presentable as he always is after spending too much time in Tony-land, looking more like a mechanic than a multi-million-dollar CEO. "Hey, Obie. What's the crisis today?"

"Tony, do you remember Marie Lewis?" Obadiah doubts that his godson remembers the model he took to that fund-raiser last week, let alone a woman he hasn't seen in so long.

Tony smiles his most lewd smile. "Yeah, she was great, both professionally and personally. Lots of fun, but still smart and dedicated. And then you fired her. That was annoying. We had to hire a new PA. I didn't take advantage of her, you know? We were just having a little fun."

Interesting. The whelp remembers the girl. Maybe he made a mistake making the girl go away. Tony might've been easier to control if Obadiah had better leverage. Oh well, what's done is done. "Yes, well, she was a sexual harassment suit waiting to happen."

Tony snorts and rolls his eyes. "Fine, whatever, Obie. She was fired and then she dropped off the face of the planet."

So the kid did miss her. "Not quite. I was still in contact with her, but I told her that it would be best if she didn't contact you."

That seems to throw Tony. Poor, poor Tony. "Um, why?"

"For being a genius, you can be a bit thick at times. The girl was pregnant, Tony."

"Oh." Tony drops into a chair. He stares at his hands probably turning the thought around in his brilliant mind. "Well, that was about a year ago, right? Did she..."

"She carried the child to term and gave birth to a healthy baby girl three months ago."

Tony breaks out into an addlepated, ridiculous grin. "A little girl." The grin dies as Tony works through his glee. "Was she mine?"

"Yes, which was why Marie had to be fired or at least why she couldn't work as your PA anymore. You were just about to become CEO. You didn't need that drama."

"So why tell me now? I'm still too newly minted as CEO to survive an illegitimate child born to an SI employee."

"Marie is dead."

"What?" Tony slumps into his chair. "Fuck, how? Is the kid okay?"

"The baby was at daycare. She's fine." Obadiah takes a deep breath. Tony is not going to take the next part well. "Marie was hit by a drunk driver. She died instantly."

Tony barks out a laugh. "Another one. Isn't that ironic, Obie? Do you think I'm cursed or is it the Stark blood that's cursed? Little girl will never know her mother."

Obadiah shakes his head. "Tony, thousands of car accidents happen every day. There's no curse."

"They seem to happen more often than usual around me."

"Tony."

"No, I'm fine, Obie. It's not like-" He cuts himself off with a bitter laugh. "Huh, Marie, Maria. There's another coincidence. Weird, huh, Obie?" Tony shakes his head. "So, what do you want? You didn't tell me before for a reason. Why are you telling me now?"

"Tony, you're in a better place now. The kid's fine. The accident was about a week ago. I took care of the arrangement. She was adopted by Marie's older brother and his wife. They live in San Diego."

"Okay."

"Relax, Tony. You don't have to do anything. The kid doesn't need you. I just thought you should know."

"Almost a year after you found out. Three months after she was born. A week after Marie died. After she was adopted. Did I miss the part where-" Tony freezes. There it is, the righteous fury of the naive. "You sonuvabitch. You just slipped in the form releasing my parental rights, didn't you? Why bother asking permission when asking forgiveness is so much easier. So much less mess and fuss."

"Tony, be serious. You can barely take care of yourself. You can't discipline a robot. How could you possibly take care of a child?"

Tony nods stiffly. So not forgiven then? "Thank you for informing me about Marie. I'll see you on Monday, Stane."

"Don't dwell on it, Tony." With that Obadiah turns to leave Tony to his silly little toys. And likely his alcohol. All the deadlines have been met, so Tony can afford to wallow for the weekend.

"Understood. One last favor, Obadiah? What's the little girl's name?"

Obadiah turns back. Tony's eyes are a little dead. Probably because it was a car wreck. "Darcy Lewis."

"And you said Marie's older brother adopted her? Good, I met him once. He didn't like me, but he's a good man." Tony shrugs and laughs derisively. "Well, most good men don't like me."

"He doesn't know who Darcy's father was."

"Great, so I'm never to have contact with her?" Good, even like this the kid can take a hint.

"Tony, you that it's better if you don't."

"Whatever. See you later."

"Bye, Tony." Obadiah shakes his head as he hears the sound of ice dropping into a tumbler.

* * *

**AN. So this probably shouldn't be happening. But I wanted to put down my back story for Darcy. For the purposes of this story and 'verse timeline prior to this is:**

**Nov 1965 James Rhodes born.**

**May 1968 Tony Stark born.**

**Aug 1981 Tony Stark enters MIT.**

**May 1984 Tony Stark graduates MIT.**

**Jun 1989 Darcy Lewis born.**

**Sept 1989 Marie dies, Darcy adopted by Dave Lewis. This chap. **

**I'm not real pleased with this chapter title, but eh, they get better? Maybe? IDK.  
**

**~S**


	2. Amphitryon, Foster-Father of Heracles

**Chapter 2: Amphitryon, Foster-Father of Heracles  
**

_December 1990..._

Dave Lewis isn't a naturally suspicious man, but he's been trained to it. He's trained himself to notice the people around his wife and daughter. And there's this kid that he keeps seeing. Almost every time they go to the park. And this kid is always hiding his face. But something about the way his gaze is constantly directed at the baby swings where Maddy has little Darcy has Dave stalking towards this kid.

Under his hood, he's fashionably scruffy, but his clothes are ripped and soiled as though he works in a garage. He doesn't seem dangerous, but Dave knows that not all of the bad ones look bad.

"Hey, kid." He drops a heavy hand onto the kid's shoulder and feels the muscles under the jean jacket tense. "You got a kid out there?"

The kid tries to make himself smaller and squirm out of Dave's grip.

"Kinda." His voice is familiar, but Dave can't place it. His answer doesn't inspire a lot of confidence either.

"What exactly does that mean? Kinda?" The kid's still squirming, but Dave has tightened his grip. He's not letting this kid go. Dave's contemplating calling the police in the next three minutes. But first he has to find out why this kid is so focused on Darcy.

"My kid was taken away from me."

"Unfit?"

The kid stills at that. He yanks his arm from Dave's grip and draws himself a little taller without showing his face to Dave. "Not officially." He shrugs. "But there were those that thought so. I didn't see the point in fighting it." He looks back to Maddy and Darcy. "I wish I had." The kid sighs and pulls his hood down. "Hi, Dave."

Dave drops to the bench behind him. "Tony. Tony Stark?"

Tony flashes him a grin. "Mr. Lewis." He extends his hand.

Dave shakes his hand mostly out of reflex. "So, you've been staring at Darcy..."

"Yeah, I guess this wasn't the best plan. Mostly I didn't notice you."

"As you were too busy being a creeper staring at my wife and daughter."

Tony rolls his eyes. "Yes, yes." He raises an eyebrow. "You gonna press charges?"

"I should. You gave up any right to her. Or else I wouldn't have been able to adopt her."

Tony's face shut down. "Yes, well, that was a bit of an oversight on my part, wasn't it?" He passes a hand over his face. "Not important. She's yours now. I just wanted to see her a couple times. And I noticed that your wife brings her here a lot."

"So you dressed up like a homeless pedophile? How was that not going to get you arrested? Even if I hadn't noticed you someone would have."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't have been staring at their kid."

Dave waves a hand dismissing Tony's argument. "No, they still might've reported you. I'm what most would call a pillar in a close-knit suburban neighborhood. If some stranger starts messing with my family, I'm going to hear about it."

"Oh." He shrugs. "Well, there's that. But I think you would've come down here to look out for this mysterious pedo that was staring at you kid. So that puts us firmly right back here."

Dave laughs. "Yes, I suppose so." He sighs. "So what happens now?"

"Darcy is legally yours. You could definitely get a restraining order against me to make sure that I couldn't bother you or your family ever again." Tony kicks at the ground, scattering the wood chips.

Dave nods. "I could do that. That's not what I asked though. You've been hanging out here for the past few weeks at least. Do you want Darcy back?"

Tony stares wide-eyed at Dave. His voice shakes as he asks, "Could you make that happen?"

"I could. Is that what you want?"

Tony gazes out at the little girl. Something in his faces changes from shocked to wistful. Not a great wistful. "No, she's happy with the two of you." He turns back to face Dave. "Besides, what would I do with a kid? I'm not exactly stable. Kids need stability and consistency. I am neither of those things. If I didn't break her within the week, she'd probably break me."

Dave nods. "Good."

Tony frowns. "Good?"

"You know your limits. You know that it's important to be there for Darcy. And you care enough about her to let her go."

Tony doesn't say anything for a minute. Then he laughs. "You ass, you King Solomon'd me. You went all 'divide the baby, and let each of you have one half'. And apparently I passed? Cool. So what does that mean?"

"It means that I want my daughter to meet her Uncle Tony. Who will be visiting periodically from now on."

"Uncle Tony?" Tony bites his lips and smiles at his feet. "Yeah, I can work with that."

* * *

**AN 'Theory of Relatives' is probably on hold a couple of weeks but this one moving forward pretty well. **

**~S**


	3. Narcissus, Son of Liriope and Cephisus

**Chapter 3: Narcissus, son of Liriope and the river god Cephisus**

_October 1995..._

"Uncle Tony! Uncle Tony! What didja bring me?"

"Bah. Ragmuffin, who said I brought you anything, you midget?"

Darcy rolls her eyes. Uncle Tony never acts like an adult when it's just the two of them talking. He always saves his grown-up behavior for Mom, Dad, and the phone. It's kind of sad. "Tony," she draws out his name. "You always bring me something. Even that time you came here for your birthday, you brought me something."

"I wanted you to make me something, and I have very discerning tastes. Those macramé things your mother has been having you make me are a fire hazard in my house."

"You say that every time. Daddy says that your house is a fire hazard all on its own."

"Yeah, but your dad's never been to my house, so what does he know?"

Darcy snorts. That's crazy. "Daddy knows everything!"

"Yes, yes, your blatant, misplaced, and unfounded hero-worship is duly noted."

"Hero-worship?" Uncle Tony always uses weird words and never tries to dumb himself down to her level. He once asked her how she was supposed to learn if everyone talked to her on the level she already knew.

"Eh, it's a thing where you view all of the best traits of a person and only those parts. It can become dangerous because it can hurt anyone involved. Like if you idolize your father so much that you don't think about his limitations. If you overestimate him, he might be hurt if he can't live up to your view of him or, uh, something like that."

"Huh, so it's like how you view yourself? Like that, Uncle Tony?"

"Ouch, no, actually that's called narcissism."

"Why? Narcissy?"

"No. Narcissism. Um, it's from a Greek myth. Some moron fell in love with his reflection and died. He refused to look away to eat, drink, or do anything but stare into his reflection."

Darcy frowns. Uncle Tony likes himself, but she didn't think that he would ignore everything in his life to stare at himself. "That's a sad story, Uncle Tony." She smacks his tummy. "If you die like that, I will never, ever forgive you."

"I know, kiddo. I'm working on it. Hanging out with you and your family has helped."

Darcy smiles and waves for Tony to bend down. He shrugs and leans down. She pats his head. "Good boy. We'd miss you. We like having you around, too. Even Dad."

He gave a squawk of protest, but then sighs. "Yeah, I'd miss you guys, too."

Darcy stares at Uncle Tony. Mom and Dad talked about Tony at night when they thought Darcy was asleep. They said things about his lifestyle and his recklessness and his inability to be responsible for anything. Darcy's pretty sure they were exaggerating, but those seem like they'd be traits that would lead to something like the myth he described.

Tony fidgets under her gaze. "Well, that was fun. Let's never talk about this again, shall we?"

Darcy smiles. Tony isn't really for feels or emotions. "Agreed." She extends her hand to seal the deal.

Tony grins. "Yeah, you got it, kid."

* * *

**AN: This is pretty much a thing for Tony. **


	4. Echo, an Oread

**Chapter 4: Echo, an Oread**

_February 1999..._

Tony raises an eyebrow at the pile of small child on his couch. This can't be good. "Fire-brand, hey. Did I miss something? Why are you in my house? We did not have a play-date scheduled."

"Where were you? I've been here all day." Darcy's voice is thick. Shit, the kid's been crying. Definitely not good.

"I don't live here all the time. I told you this, Echo. I know I told you this."

"Why do you call me 'Echo'?"

"Ah, well, that's me breaking my own rules as usual." It was such a short conversation and four years ago. Darcy probably didn't even remember, but Tony couldn't let himself forget. He even had nightmares about it. He shakes his head. Not the point. "But, seriously, half-pint, why aren't you at home with your parents?"

"I was adopted."

Well, Tony supposes it was just a matter of time before she figured it out. "And then there's that."

"Don't play with me, Tony. You already knew that."

"Yeah, I know. Do you know who my parents are?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"Will you tell me? Dave said my mom died when I was a baby. But my dad is still alive. Tony, Dave said that he left before I was born."

He really didn't want to be the one to tell her. "Look, Echo, I don't-"

"Please, Tony, I wanna know. Even if I can't meet him, I need to know."

Of course she did. Starks were like terriers. Small, smart, and more likely to be thrown into a wall than to let go.

"It's me."

"What?"

"I'm your dad."

"You?"

"Don't be so surprised, Echo. I'm an okay person. Your parents let you visit me unsupervised." Tony winces. "Although that might change if they find out that you ran away from home to end up here. Where you spent what, five hours by yourself?"

She shrugs. "About that, I guess." She frowns and circles around him. Appraising him? Looking for faults? Looking for a tag that says 'I made Darcy'? "Yeah, you're not really dad material."

Apparently the answer was D, all of the above. On the other hand, Tony couldn't really blame her. "Yeah, that was the consensus at the time. I've mentioned Obie, my business partner, right?"

Darcy thinks a moment but nods. "Yeah, your god-father, right?"

"Right." Obie wasn't really a great father-figure either. Only marginally better at it than his absentee biological father. Don't go there. Tony is not Howard Stark. Will never be Howard Stark. For better or worse. "Anyway, Obie convinced me that it's be best for you after your mother died if I signed away my parental rights. Meaning that I wouldn't have custody of you if something happened to her. Or rather so that you could be adopted by Dave and Maddy."

Darcy stares him down for a moment. All four feet of her ten-year-old self. "He tricked you."

Damn, as annoying as it always was when she called him out, he can't help beaming at how smart she is. "Well, yeah, I guess there's that." Tony shrugs. "He took advantage of my laziness. Slipped it in to my tedious paperwork. The kind I never used to read. I've been getting better though, I promise."

Darcy nods. "Okay." She narrows her eyes at him. "So, do I call you dad?"

Oh, fuck no. "He can't do that to Dave or Maddy. Not after they'd been so great about him hanging around for years. But he just shrugs and shakes his head. "Nah, Dave's done pretty great job. I think he's earned that title way more than I ever could."

She smiles sadly at him. "Tony, he lied. And you're not that horrible."

Tony barks out his most self-deprecating laugh. "Kid, who do you think we are? We're Starks! Our legacy is misdirection, obfuscation, and explosions. The only honest thing we deal in is the explosions. We don't begrudge others their white lies. Especially when they're only lying to protect us."

"Protect us?" She still doesn't get who Tony is. Well, it's not like Dave or Maddy have ever let her read tabloids or, well, she wouldn't want to read business rags.

"Echo, my name is Tony Stark. I'm one of the richest, most well-known men in America if not the world. Most places I go, I get hounded by crowds of reporters. Dave adopting you protected you from that fame."

And the kidnappings. After a while Tony got over them, but he didn't want Darcy to have to do that. He didn't want her left alone calling after him. Echoing his childhood fears. He would write the story better this time. No staring into ponds.

"I wouldn't mind being famous." Darcy smiles at him. "Might be fun."

He grins at her. Sometimes, but only sometimes. "Ah, little imp, you say that now, but fame is a fickle mistress. With teeth. Vicious, vicious teeth. Like the big, bad wolf. All ready to eat up innocent little girls in red dresses and spit out evil witches."

Darcy shakes head at him. "I'm pretty sure that's not how that story goes."

He waves a hand at her. "Don't bother me with details." He tilts his head. Since she knows who he is now, there's really no reason he can't. "Hey, we're gonna call Dave to make sure I don't get charged with kidnapping you, okay? But after that, do you wanna see my basement?"

"The basement you disappear into to make toys?"

He snaps and points at her. "That's the one."

She bounces and bites her lip. "Yes." She narrows her eyes. "Are you going to make me do math things again?"

"You're great at it. I don't see why you hate it so much."

"Because it's homework, and as a child I am conditioned to hate homework automatically."

Tony shrugs. He never got the point of people assigning him work. He just did whatever he wanted. Very Montessori and all that. "So you make your own math games. Teach yourself higher level stuff turn that in and sit back as they gape at you. Turn the work into something practical and make puzzles."

She rolls her eyes and gets up to go to his kitchen. "Whatever, call Dave."

Tony smiles at his daughter. His Echo. He was gonna make sure that he took care of her and never let her fade.


	5. Daedelus, Cretan Inventor

**Chapter 5: Daedelus, the Cretan Inventor**

_October 2005..._

"Hey! Dr. Banner! Wait up!"

Bruce sighs. Undergrads were a thing he was never going to get used to. Especially the perky ones with a million questions.

Whatever. Bruce stops to let his, hmmm, biochem student. "Hi, Miss Lewis, right?"

She boggles at him a moment and then rallies. "Huh, yeah. Wow, I wasn't expecting you to know my name. I mean, that class has at least one, one-twenty students."

Not all of them ask twenty questions per hour-and-a-half class. Ever since that first week showed a definite pattern, he'd been keeping track of it. That was her steady average. But he just smiles. "I'm good with names."

"Huh." She leans closer to peer into his eyes. "That's weird for a science person."

Bruce counts to ten and reminds himself that the science department wants students from other disciplines to participate in their courses. That to even get to biochem, this girl had to at least test out of about five science courses. That to maim her, verbally or physically, could get him fired. Or at least reprimanded.

And he certainly couldn't afford to be fired. Not with the way his research was going.

So he sighs and shrugs. "I guess."

Lewis pokes his face. "Yep, you're real. Cool. You know, you're very 'Clark Kent' meets 'Doc Emmett Brown'."

Not reacting. _Not_ reacting. She's just a little eccentric. It's fine. It's _fine_. "Did you need me for something, Miss Lewis?"

She snaps and points a finger. "Right!" She digs in her bag and pulls out a manila envelope. "My project. I won't be in class tomorrow. Going out of town early for a family thing." She waves her explanation away. "Anyway not important. Project is finished and in your hands. Please don't lose it. I can e-mail it, but you wanted a hardcopy, so there."

He wants to glare at the envelope a little. Now he has to go back to his office and put away the damn thing instead of just heading for his lab. He doesn't have time to be teaching, but the university insisted for this semester. Well, if he has to head back to his office, he'll get waylaid by his TA anyway, so he smiles and asks, "When're you leaving? If it's not right away I can try to grade it before you leave and let you know."

She bites her lip and rubs her neck. "Uh, tomorrow at one. But I'm pretty much booked until then because I'm missing the rest of the week and part of next week. It's not like you're the easiest professor to get a hold of." She looks like she wants to eye roll at that, but she doesn't.

He nods. He rarely holds office hours. "So, you don't mind waiting until you get back?"

"I'm pretty sure that this project isn't even going to be the last thing on my mind this weekend. I'm going to visit my dad. And he's taking me to a race."

"A race?"

She shrugs, but she's grinning and almost bouncing. "It's a big deal to him. He has money on one of the participants."

"Ah, what kind of race?"

"Uh, cars."

"So, NASCAR?" Why is he still asking questions? Bruce wants to rush off to his office, so that even if his TA catches him, he'll still be able to get to his lab. She already said she didn't need it graded right away. It's just that something about the way she's been asking questions makes him feel a little like if she's missing classes it must be important.

"Um, no. It's a smaller circuit." Something about the way she says it is off like she's laughing at the idea of her dad watching NASCAR.

"Oh, like drag racing?"

"Not really." This time she doesn't bother holding back the eye roll. "Look, Dr. Banner, thanks for the offer, but I need to turn in a few more things today. See you next week. You rock, dude."

"Right." And as she walks away, he shakes his head. It's not like he'll never see her again. She'll be back next week.

* * *

And there she is. Right in front, where she's packing up her things after the class. Bruce has been fidgeting through his lecture. She hadn't asked any questions all class. It was weird. So he drops to sit on the edge of the auditorium's stage."So, Miss Darcy, how was the race?"

She drops a notebook into her bag and lets out a happy sigh. "Oh man, Dr. B. It was the greatest. Dad's car won. I mean, he was positive it would, but I wasn't so sure. But it was the greatest. Junior totally annihilated Stanley." She goes back to packing up with a smile.

"Stanley?" He really can't help his curiousity around this girl. He knows that though she's pretty, he's not attracted to her. It's just that even though she asks too many questions. They're the right questions, like she's trying to guide his lectures to make sure that he doesn't miss anything.

"Oh, yeah. That was the robot that came in second place."

"Robot?"

"Oh. That's right. I went down to the Mojave Desert for the DARPA race."

Bruce doesn't say anything for a minute. "You went to see the DARPA Grand Challenge? To see your father's car race? Which won."

Darcy grins at him. "Yep."

"They don't sell tickets to that. Your father had to have been involved in the construction of the robot." Bruce narrows his eyes. "The Stark Industries robot."

"Uh, yeah. My dad works at SI. I've been an unofficial mascot all my life."

"You're dad works at Stark Industries? And he worked on their DARPA robot? I would've thought that they would've had Tony Stark work on that. He is one of the premier experts in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence."

"Oh, um." Darcy bites her lip and shuffles her notes. Odd. "Well, he was supposed to and he did most of the original work for the AI, but then he got bored, so my dad got tapped to finish the project."

"Huh, I've met Stark. The way he talks about AI, I wouldn't have thought that any project involving them or robotics would be boring to him." In fact when Bruce had met him, his new AI was all that Stark had talked about. Darcy's story doesn't quite make sense.

"Oh yeah?" She grins, a departure from the nervousness of a second ago. "Yeah, I've heard stories about how he talks about Jarvis and the bots he has in his workshop."

"Jarvis?" The name seems familiar, but engineering wasn't his field, and he'd only been half listening those years ago.

"Yep, Just A Rather Very Intelligent System." She smiles at the face he makes and shrugs. "It's what Tony tells people that JARVIS stands for."

"In other words, his main AI project. Why qualify that he only tells people that's what it stands for?"

"Because I've done my research and Tony Stark is unexpectedly sentimental at times."

"Really?"

"When he was a little boy, his parents employed a bulter named Edwin Jarvis, good man who cared for a small boy who would often fall by the wayside in a world of glitz and glamor. Everyone knows the story of the car accident that killed Howard and Maria Stark. Hardly anyone knows about the man who was driving the car. Mr. Edwin Jarvis died on impact, so there's that. But Tony was left an orphan with the weight of the world chasing his shoulders and without a man who was closer to him than his father. He may have already been nineteen, but he was by no means grown." By the time she finishes her rant, her eyes are sparking and she's tilting her chin at him and it's all remarkably familiar.

Bruce grins at her. Oh god, this kid is so not hiding well. "Done your research, huh?"

Darcy gasps. It seems to hit her all at once that she should not know any of that. "I, uh, I did a project on him for psych class. You know on how crappy history can lead to crappy coping mechanisms which he totally- He's a classic narcissist and he's almost got a Oedipal complex. Ridiculous bag of neuroses and all that ego." She darts glances between him and her bag. "Shit, you're not buying any of this." She drops into a chair and crosses her arms.

"Yeah, not really. So, is he gonna have me killed now?"

"You plan on selling me out to the press?"

He hops off the stage and shrugs. "Not particularly. I have a good salary. Besides I'm currently kind of working for the military, and he has better," He pauses to reconsider, "Well, maybe not better connections, but certainly more connections."

"Oh, okay. Then there's a pretty good chance that he won't bother you. I've talked about you to him, and he said he vaguely remembered thinking that you were an adorably cliched puppy."

"Um, what?"

"Yeah, I don't think he knew what he meant either." She scuffs a shoes against the floor. "So, you're working for the military? I thought you were working for Culver."

"You sound surprised that a university with any sort of proximity to the capital has military contracts or that a professor here would have a military grant."

"Oh, right. It's just that this is so far from the context I typically encounter the military, I forget."

"Yes, I imagine it's nice to pretend they don't exist, but aren't you a poly-sci major?"

She shrugs. "It was kind of a crapshoot. Tony was being annoying about me going to MIT, so I was being mean. I pretty much already had the majority of an associate's from the classes I took while in high school. In more science-y things, too. But I wanted to take classes out of any science discplines. I'm only taking your course because people said you were a cool teacher."

"I'm not sure anyone would really know that I hadn't been teaching much since I got my most recent project."

She leans forward. "With Thunderbolt, right?"

He sort of freezes but then relaxes. "Tony tell you that? He's not supposed to know."

"He ranted about it really." She shrugs. "That's actually where I heard your name. He didn't say what it was, but he was going on about how the general had usurped one of the great nuclear physicists of the age into a ridiculous grail search."

"Good to know he holds such respect for me."

She laughs. "You're joking, but it's better than anything I've ever heard him say about anyone in a professional capacity. He blames Thunderbolt, not you." She narrows her eyes. "He might even blame Dr. Ross before he blames you. He looked up her picture and actually paused his ranting."

Bruce can picture that. From what he remembers of Stark, the man was a dog. He tries not to change his posture in the face of the archetypal playboy of the Western World having shown the mildest interest in his girlfriend. "Well, she didn't really have to work that hard to convince me. I liked the premise of the project."

"Recreating the pinnacle of human perfection?"

"What? Oh, no, it's not really that similar to Project Rebirth. It's more about protecting the soldiers than trying to improve them."

Darcy gives him a hard look and bites her lips. "Are you sure, Banner?"

Bruce laughs. "Thunderbolt's an ass. And I know that fact better than most, but, really, we're trying to protect soldiers from rad-poisoning. T-bolt's not a scientist, even if he's in charge of them, and he can only direct the research so much."

"If you're sure. Be careful. I like you and I'm pretty sure Tony does, too. He doesn't call just anyone a puppy."

"Thank him for me. Though I'm pretty sure I should be offended."

"I wouldn't worry about it."

"See you later, Darcy."

"Buh-bye, Brucey." She kisses a finger and presses his forehead before striding out with her bags.

* * *

In his lab, Bruce thinks about Darcy Lewis and Tony Stark. They're a lot alike, but he thinks that Darcy shows more of what she feels. He can't help but think that might not be a good thing. Then he shakes his head and gets back to work. There's a review coming up soon, and the next few tests are important. He snorts at himself every test is important.

Things have been going slowly. And as far as the military is concerned slow is tantamount to failure.

He has to finish faster.

* * *

**AN: Guess what happens next. Poor Brucey. This chapter was written a little haphazardly. I wrote the first half a while ago and then came back to the rest but only had the first few lines of dialogue written. **

**And after I reread that part, I couldn't figure out why Bruce would ask about the race. And then boom, his weird curiousity about her and also the way he keeps track of how many questions. _Except_ Darcy is still way too excited about the fact that JUNIOR won the race (Just Unbeatable Navigation Independent Optimal Racer, originally JR for Just Race, then Just Unbeatable Never Imitated Operative Racer; I can't figure out which I like better; okay fine he was originally just JJ for JARVIS Jr. but that was no fun; I really want another J-word but I can't think of one; wow, this is kind of an AN for the AN and that is just sad especially since no one ever reviews on this fic; BTW you guys should do that 8D; PLEEEEEEEEEASE). **

**And I know that Stanford actually won the race, but Tony doesn't actually exist, does he? And please, if he did, he totally would have won that race. **

**But whatever, so the only reason Bruce is so uncharitable towards her in the first part is b/c he really just wants to go to his 'real' job and he's grumpy. But I got hung up on the above parenthetical and lost my train of thought, sooooo here.**

**And again not sure I like the title, or who it's referring to for that matter.**

**~S**


	6. Icarus, Son of Daedelus

**Chapter 6: Icarus, Son of Daedelus**

_May 2006..._

"Hey, kiddo, why aren't we wishing me a happy birthday?" Tony asks over his shoulder from where he's fiddling with Dummy's joints.

Darcy shrugs and pokes at her ridiculously expensive piece of cake. She doesn't anything, and danger, Will Robinson, that is never a good sign.

"Are you still upset about Banner?"

She deliberately sets her plate and fork down and turns to face him. "They pushed him into testing it too soon, didn't they?"

Probably, but Tony doesn't actually know because once Ross had pulled up the archived data on a certain soldier, Tony ran far and fast from that project. But that's not what she wants to hear. "Echo, you know as well as I do that they may have pressured him and threatened his funding, but he did the experiment anyway. He started it He made wings of wax and flew too high. So, he fell just like Icarus of myth. Yeah, they hung him out to dry, but he made his bed."

"Enough with the clichés," she snaps at him.

"Yeah, okay. That was bad, but it doesn't make it any less true."

"He's the only one beside Obie and Rhodey that knew. Granted he's probably got -"

"Wait, what?" Banner knew what? That could not be what it sounded like.

Darcy freezes. Another bad sign and oh, man, that was exactly what it sounded like. "Um, I kind of told him about Junior and the DARPA. Then, he started talking about you and asking about Jay and I got a little overenthusiastic about talking his namesake."

"So not only does he know that your my daughter, but he knows I'm a sap?" Tony fully recognizes that he'd just whined at her, thank you very much, but that was so beside the point. There was a federal fugitive out there that knew some of the secrets he played so close to the vest that they were practically tattooed on his skin. A federal fugitive that turned into a veritable monster when angry or startled.

"Well, yeah, there's that." Damn his genes and their natural tendency to flippancy.

"Sometimes I hate you." Because really Banner knowing his personal thingies was not a thing that he needed.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You told Rhodey."

"That is a blatant lie. Rhodey told me." Because there was that one time that Darce had been waiting for him outside the hanger, and Rhodey had seen her, and there was this whole situation where she snarked at him, and he told her to get lost, and then she smirked, and Rhodey turned around to glare at Tony and asked why Tony hadn't asked him to be the godfather because of reasons. And Jesus, what was his life, so they'd just spent the weekend together so Rhodey could get to know Darcy.

"Yeah, I guess he did." She smiles obviously remembering that weekend very differently because Rhodey had no boundaries and Darcy had apparently been old enough for MIT stories if not Cuban ones. Rhodey still hadn't forgiven him for the Cuban ones. She shakes of the nostalgia of Tony-embarassment and gives him that look. "Tony, is there anything you can do for him?"

Tony really can't help it. He huffs out a short laugh and shakes his head. "Oh, Echo, you're under the mistaken idea that he actually needs my help. Your prof is a smart man. And you know, when he's small and pinkish, that man is only remarkable when doing science. Very bland, handsome but not movie star pretty. He'll blend as much as he can, and he'll survive."

"But Tony, he shouldn't have to." She's almost desperate. Banner must have been a fun teacher.

"Maybe not, kiddo, but he wouldn't take my help even if I could offer it. In fact, it could attract the wrong type of attention for him if I tracked him down."

"Oh," she breathes out the word. The idea hadn't occurred to her in the throes of worry. "That would suck."

"Yeah, because trust me, Banner is one man I wouldn't mind hiring." And he really wouldn't because that little dorky man was all types of smart, and from what Tony'd heard and could remember, that man even did people well. Which was a definite rarity in the realm of science and engineering.

"Even with his new 'disability'?" Darcy asks, raising a mocking eyebrow at him.

"Please, Echo, this guy was ballsy enough to try this crap out on himself, so while I think he could probably do with a course in lab procedure I deeply respect his dedication." Not to mention, that even if he thought he was trying to protect soldiers from rad poisoning, he'd almost gotten the process of making a super-soldier right. And even if he couldn't stand thinking about the Soldier and Howard, Dr. Abraham Erskine was an amazing man. And Bruce Banner had almost been the first successful reproduction.

"Besides 'caution is for the weak'?"

"Indubitably." Because caution was one thing when being responsible (which Tony hated), but when caution got in the way of actual progress, it was worse than useless.

And Tony intended to have that epithet carved on his grave marker. 'Caution is for the weak,' indeed.

* * *

**AN: After sketched this chapter out, I realized in 'Daedelus' that I'd mentioned that both Obadiah and Rhodey knew, but that I'd never said when Rhodey found out or how. That's why there's so much Tony stream of consciousness in this chapter (also b/c in my head Tony's always got at least 2 convos going on, one w/ actual ppl and one w/ himself). But since this is a slight oversight, here...**

* * *

**Bonus Scene: And Where Did You Come From?**

_July 2003...  
_

Jim hates having meetings with Tony.

No matter what his intention, everything with Tony devolves into Jim clucking over Tony's behavior and Tony pulling Jim into the same reckless misfortune that made them infamous on the MIT campus. It didn't help that Jim found his job as liaison to SI incredibly boring when he wasn't dealing directly with Tony.

It was in fact probably very telling. Jim hates thinking about this, but Tony can be pervasive to the point that it's difficult to compartmentalize his presence in your life.

Jim shakes his head as he exits the hanger. The tech this time was a sophisticated UAV. Cool, but Jim would always advocate against them. As much as he loved Jay, he had grown up reading all the science-fiction he could and found arming autonomous machines downright terrifying.

And speaking of terrifying, outside of the hanger there was a young girl listening to an mp3 player. And was security bad enough here that a kid could sneak onto Tony Stark's air-field? Because he would have words about allowing unauthorized kids access into space with potentially dangerous military tech.

But here was this little brunette with huge headphones, dark shades, and a high pony-tail snapping gum and sitting against the hanger wall, reading from a book thick enough to kill a man if launched at his head.

He nudges her with a booted toe. She sighs and removes her headphones. "Took you long enough, was Rhodey as long-winded as I said he would be? You know he hates UAVs. I don't -" She interrupts herself as she looks up. "Oh." She scowls and dog-ears her page before closing her book and extending an imperious hand up. "Well, that was awkward. But still I was mid-rant and well, whatever, right?" Her tone is forcibly breezy as she stands and waves a dismissive hand. "Salient point, though. I have no clue why he keeps showing you the UAVs. He knows you find them cool but creepy. I think he's trying outcool the creepy enough for you to admit that they're awesome." She gives him a glance over her shades. "And really you can admit it to me if you want. I totally won't tell. Because he's really starting to outdo himself because seriously the last few have been seriously fucking awesome."

With that she just stops talking and gazes up expectantly, bouncing slightly.

"Um, I guess?" Jim just doesn't even know. This kid obviously knows Tony, but he can't think of how. "Are you supposed to be here?"

"Yep, I'm with Tony for the day. He said he forgot that Pepper scheduled this for today. Was really apologetic, but still needed not to blow you off. He said he'd been doing that too often lately." She gives him a sad, apologetic look. "He's been a bit busy lately. He hasn't been able to get down to San Diego lately." She brightens almost as fast as her face had fallen a moment before. "But then I asked Dave and Maddy if I could come up her and they agreed. It's been great." She wrinkles her nose good-naturedly. "Even if Tony makes me do extra homework."

Right. And her chattering isn't helping him pin down where he's seen her before. Except... But, no. She can't be...

"Hey, Echo." The note in Tony's voice is cautious. "You're early. I said I'd come get you when I was finished here."

Echo shoots past Jim to wrap herself around Tony in the hanger door. And, oh dear Lord, Tony fucking Stark is gazing down at her with something like fondness in his eyes.

"Tony."

And his friend's gaze shoots up to meet his glare over the girl's diminutive shoulder. "Rhodey! Hey, what're you still doing here?"

"Tony, you didn't."

"Stop it. She's standing right here." Tony's glaring now. And patting the head of Echo.

Jim sighs. "What kind of name is Echo?"

Now the girl is grinning at him. And wow, that's an impending-danger-should-not-come-from-this-small-a-package grin. "It's Greek, but my name is Darcy. Darcy Lewis." She shoves her hand at him.

He shakes it automatically. "That your mom's name? Lewis?"

She yanks her hand back and stares at the ground. "Um, yeah. But it's also my adoptive parents' name. Dave is my mom's brother. He and Maddy adopted me."

Jim winces. That was a touchy subject if he ever saw one. "Dave and Maddy, huh? Are they nice?"

"Yeah." She takes a deep breath. "Marie Lewis died in a car accident when I was three months. That's when I was adopted. I found out three years ago but," She shrugs, "I never got a chance to know her or mourn her."

"Marie Lewis? Why does that sound familiar?"

Darcy shoots Tony a wicked smile. "She was his PA. All very scandalous. Obie sent her away." Her tone is joking but something about her posture when she mentions Stane is off. A little too hunched.

"Huh, okay." Jim's never really liked Stane either, but Tony always acts like the man is his second father. "So, Tony's about you since your adoption? And he's been in contact with you?"

They both hear the odd note in his voice, and it's a little scary how similar their reactions are. They both tense and wince and cast glances at each other. It's just really, really weird.

Tony breaks the silence first. He rubs the back of his neck and says, "Yeah, Dave caught me watching her one day in the park and commandeered me as an uncle. She met Obie a while ago, but no one else knows."

"So as your best friend I don't rate as godfather?" And Jim's joking. This is totally the way he words things when he's messing with Tony except it really does hurt. He doesn't know how to feel about the fact that he's considered Tony a brother for years, but Tony hasn't seen fit to trust him with this.

"Rhodey." Darcy's up close and personal in the same way that Tony always is, and Jim can't help but wonder how much is imitation and how much is natural inclination, wonder what this girl would be like without Tony. But that's not important because Darcy's talking again. "It wasn't a matter of trust or that whole loose lips sink ships, or crash planes, whatever." She dismisses the tangent with a hand-wave, but just keeps rolling on. "It was just that he was trying to limit how much of this world I get exposed to. He wants to make sure that I get a normal childhood." She grins at Tony. "Well, normal as a childhood could possibly be around him."

Jim smiles at her because, yeah, he could get used to her. "So, what's on the agenda for the weekend?"

* * *

**AN2: And then they ride off into the sunset where Rhodey tells horrible, horrible lies about their time at MIT that are completely and utterly true. Because this is Tony's life, and for reasons beyond his understanding he surrounds himself with people that are crazy and just mock him for all time.**

**~S**


End file.
